Diana Patalau from Central Sulawesi Povincial Office for Social Affairs said efforts to distribute assistance is often hampered by a lack ofdata on displaced population.

“Supplies of basic needs are actually available but there is no information about what to send, how many and where,” she expalined, adding that availability of sex disaggregated data is important because women have specific needs while maintaining their wellbeing when living in displaced people camps, including menstrual hygiene.

The National Disaster Mitigation Board, and the Ministries of Health and Social Affairs, are gathering this data through a Displacement Tracking Matrix, with support from UNFPA and International Organization for Migration (IOM).So far 365 enumerators and 30 supervisors from Tadulako Universityhave been trained on the use of adroid-based KoboCollect application to collect data on people who are displaced in Palu City and in the districts of Sigi and Donggala.

“With reliable data availability, the government and all humanitarian organizations can properly plan for adequate services and supplies to address the vulnerabilities of quake affected population,” said UNFPA’s Advisor for Geospatial for Population Census and Humanitarian Pramudhiarta Narwawi.